Reversal of Fortunes
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: A parable about how one rich citizen of Coruscant and one poor citizen receive a spiritual reversal of their fortunes after death. Based off of the Biblical parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Stars Orn Free Taa, Padmé Amidala, Teckla Minnau, and Qui-Gon Jinn (and the Force).


**Based off of the Biblical parable of the rich man and Lazarus.**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Disney and Dave Filoni do.

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The climate of the Clone Wars took its toll on many people. Countless individuals, families, and groups of friends lived in poor conditions because of all the money the Republic was wasting on the war effort. And yet, at the same time, there were also many who were living in rich luxury, especially in the upper echelons of the Republic, like the Galactic Senate.

There was a Twi'lek senator named Orn Free Taa, and he was a man who lived in luxury on a regular basis. He dressed in fine blue and brown senator robes, ate big meals several times every day, lived in a lavish penthouse on Coruscant, and had the leanest, prettiest, most ditzy Twi'lek girls on his arms to show off everywhere he went.

One of the other senators, Padmé Amidala, a human from Naboo, had a handmaiden named Teckla Minnau. She, in contrast, lived a very rough life in a run-down old district of Coruscant. Because the Republic war machine was eating up so much of the profits needed to take care of Coruscant's citizens, (and senators like Taa were partly responsible for such things,) Teckla's home rarely had electricity and running water. Her children couldn't bathe more than once in two weeks, and they had no light by which to read or study at night.

It chanced that during the reign of the Galactic Empire after the Clone Wars, Handmaiden Teckla died and was taken up into the Force by the benevolent Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn, a man who had mastered long forgotten immortality, to join with her already deceased senator, Padmé. Senator Taa also died and his body was disposed of like a piece of trash. In the netherworld of Chaos, where all was madness and anguish, Taa lifted up his eyes, and saw Teckla and Padmé far off, standing with Master Qui-Gon. He wept and cried, "Have mercy on me, Jedi, and send Teckla or Amidala, that she may dip her finger in cold water and cool my tongue. I cannot stand these flames or this insanity!"

But Qui-Gon said, "Orn Free Taa, remember that in your lifetime, you were greedy and exalted yourself among the senators of the Senate, and received your good things, while Teckla and Padmé lived by love and humility, and in the same way, had their bad things. But now they are comforted in the joy of everlasting life and you are in torment forever. Besides, there is a valley fixed between the Force and Chaos, so those who are here cannot cross over to you, and none may cross over from there to us."

Taa said, "Then I beg you, Master Jedi, that you would send Teckla and/or Senator Amidala to my houses on Coruscant and Ryloth; for I still have some of my mistresses and two younger brothers, that they may tell them about why I'm here and they are there, so they won't also come to this place of torment."

Qui-Gon replied, "They have the people who are presently suffering under the boot of the Empire. Let them learn from their example."

"No, Master Jedi," insisted Taa, "but if someone goes from them to the dead, they will repent and become good again."

Qui-Gon merely said, "If such people don't pay attention to the greed of the Imperial citizens or the torture they put the innocent people through, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead."

And with that, Taa sank back into Chaos to live out his sentence of anguish and madness for his overly comfortable lifestyle, while Teckla Minnau and Padmé Amidala lived with the comforts they so deserved after suffering so much because of the war and the Chancellor turned Emperor, although they were never entirely happy until Padmé's husband was redeemed and destroyed the Emperor, crippling the Empire.


End file.
